A site for my handmade cards, accompanied by my photos and written meanderings which are occasionally witty, often tongue-in-cheek, and rarely profound. Beginning in June 2013, you'll also see lots of NBUS, which is an acronym I coined for Never-Before-Used-Schtuff. Feel free to join in, use the acronym, and use up your NBUS too! Thanks for coming by! Have a beverage and enjoy!

Pages

November 21, 2015

Red and White Delights

Hello there, my friends!

Happy Saturday! I should be cleaning and washing windows and doing whatall and whatnot to get ready for Thanksgiving, but I'm also looking down the barrel of a Christmas Card Overseas Deadline, so there's a flurry of activity in the Playhouse. I've got the recent hamsterfall working in six-part harmony while Hammy orchestrates, so I thought I would take a break from them and post a cuppla creations.

First up is a tag:

The birch trees are a NBUS stamp from Purple Onions, heat embossed in black. The double sediment tag was made using a SU punch and a sediment from PTI's "Fillable Frames #8 Mini." The beautiful twill ribbon is also from SU. The little wooden reindeer was a gift from my friend Andrea.

Another friend is holding her fifth annual "25 Days of Christmas Tags" event where the DT members of several well-known companies are providing inspiration every day and I wanted to join in. That friend would be the lovable and talented Tracey!

I was inspired by this adorable tag made using Lawn Fawn products by Samantha Casey for Day Ten of Tracey's event:

The stamp set is called "Poinsettias." It's made by Waltzingmouse Stamps and it contains several sizes of beautiful poinsettia images. The sediment is NBUS, also from Waltzingmouse Stamps ("Compact Sentiments"). I watercolored the flower and I'm sorry that the color came out looking a bit dull in the photo from the lateness of the day. In real life, it's quite vibrant and sparkly from winking. It also looks a little poofy because I used Loll's trick of rolling over the back with my stylist to stretch the paper and plump up the image. Wait. What? Is "stylist" the right word? The nice lady who does my hair? That can't be right.

The twofers make my posts longer, but I do want to introduce you to these five talented card artists!

Janice of My Craftroom Makes. Janice is literally a fresh new face in Blogland as she just started her blog in September! As always, I would love it if you took a minute to give Janice a special welcome to our warm and supportive corner of the World Wide Webatory! Even though she has just started, Janice is a prolific designer so there is lots and lots of stunning CAS and shaped cards already there for your inspiration!

Niki Garcia of Stampin'HI. Niki is from Hawaii and she started blogging in 2012 to be a more active member of this paper-addicted community that we all love. She is the mom of two and a full-time Registered Nurse. As always, I'm impressed by women who can mom and blog! Nikki not only manages both of those well, she serves on design teams! You will love her bright and cheerful cards!

Ka of Stamping Smiles Designs. Ka is from Wisconsin and although she only started blogging in January of this year, she is already well known to a lot of you. And rightly so! As she says herself, she makes cute and whimsical cards guaranteed to make the recipient (and her blog fans) smile. Ka is going to start her own challenge in January, so head's up!

Jennifer Loftfield of Caffeinated Papercuts. Jennifer started blogging in 2011. There is more testosterone than estrogen in Jennifer's household which means, as she says, she loves crafting because it gives her the chance to use pink! Jennifer is another designer and award winner whose art is so inspiring. In addition to creating her card art, Jennifer enjoys gardening and cooking and ... obviously ... coffee!

Dusi of Dusi Creates. Dusi is from Slovenia and she started blogging in 2013. She is not just a card artist, although you will be inspired and impressed by the card art she does create. She makes 3D projects, jewelry, ornaments, and brooches and pendants, so there is truly a lot to see. Dusi's special creations are colorful, fun, and full of life!

Thank you for joining, ladies, and welcome to the Playhouse!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy!LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.Click Comments and the pop-up box opens.Click Jump to Comment Form; no more car pool tunnel! Mwah!If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leaveme your email address so I can respond. Thank you!

Two brilliant cards Darnell, particularly love your poisettia (sorry dont know how to spell it and if I try to correct my ipad will lock on the edit so just sound it out and its right). Love going to visit people following you, always end up with more to follow through Feedly. Think this app will go into melt down one of these days. Take care and hope the Mr is doing ok.

Darnell you have rocked both these projects, and I am so glad you took a break from Hamster madness to post them. :-) Love your poinsettia and I am sure that having winked and styled you flower it must be really dramatic IRL!BlessingsMaxine

Wow Darnell! What an awesome surprise to be mentioned as a bloggy friend! Love both tags, and the ginormous poinsettia with all its dimension. Such a cool trick to plump up the paper while it's wet. Hope your weekend is going well!

Two festive beauties, Darnell! I keep meaning to get a birch tree background and your fabulous tag has increased the temptation and I really love the gorgeous, rich poinsettia. Great to see you over at the Uniko challenge too :)

I adore your tag Darnell with the pretty birch trees and cute wooden reindeer and then that big and beautiful poinsettia so wonderfully coloured too. I need to get a move on with my Christmas cards as well! x

So did you have to make an appointment with your stylist? hahaha! ; ) That poinsettia card is really lovely. Your watercoloring is awesome, and I love all the winking with Stella. Very pretty Christmas card. Darling tag too! I've yet to find much crafting time and I think I should take a little today when the last of the shampooed carpets will be drying and make a card/tag or two! Love those birch trees! You've colored the whole tag beautifully too! Dang girl! Thanks, too for the happy mail; you're in my heart! Miss you and have to get going now, but thinking of you!!!!! Bev

When look at you getting going on a Saturday morning! Although I am hoping that you are still sleeping a did the post last night as I just woke up here in the EST. You tag is so cute with the beautiful ribbon and Waltzingmouse is always pretty. Thank you for sharing with me at the 25 Days of Christmas Tags and T CASology! ~hugs!

Happy Saturday to you too Darnell! LOVE both of your creations today. That sweet little tag with that cute little deer and that fabulously bold Poinsettia! Gorgeous! Hope you are having a good weekend my friend! Hazel xx

I think the little reindeer tag is just adorable, loving the trees in the background. As for the poinsettia, it is stunning - and I think I can see a hint of wink there too, love that stamp! Over here we call the stylist thingy an embossing tool but not sure if it is the same there.... whatever you used, it looks fantastic! Hope you are having a good weekend. Hugs, Annie xxx

The tag is cute, cute, cute. Love those birch trees in the background... lovely. Crushing, big time, on the magnificent poinsettia. Wow...it's stunning. Using your stylus really adds to the dimension. That deserves another WOW! I really don't know where you find the time to wash windows and clean with 7 hamsters and a, still recovering, husband. Safe to say, you really are a dynamo. Mind-boggling going on here. If I don't hear from you until then, Happy Thanksgiving to you and ALL of yours. Hugs!

Cleaning the windows? Who is coming the queen? I pay the cleaning lady's husband.The tag card is very cute and I like the birch tree. The poinsettia is quite nice and I know they can be a pain to color as I have several which I attempted with Brushos.Enjoy the holiday and the company and quit fretting over a clean house which it certainly is already. Silly ladies we are, the company will not give you a white glove test. Although once many years ago a guest at a party teased me and ran is finger over the top of the frig. Really. Creep. Whew it was clean.

It looks like your new little hammy's are doing a grand old job helping you both out - you and mmm... what shall I call him now? I guess I could call the little ones 'squishy faces' for now... but they will grow big and strong soon enough!!!Love both designs as always, Darnell. You have A LOT of NBUS!!!

Love these darling tags!Cute, cute, cute. Hammy is doing a bang-up job keeping things running along. Maybe you best leave him in charge permanently(give 'im a pay raise though). You seg-waded from cute to beautiful so easily. Your stylist did a fantastic job too...better give HER a big tip. I am just loving these inspirations. Wonderful to see some new friends pop in here...ya'll have a great afternoon, and thanks for a big bucket of cheer & inspiration this evening. Hugs & MWAH. TFS

Anything that gets dirty as fast as windows do doesn't deserve to be cleaned in the first place! I say forget them. Your guests will never even notice! Fabulous tags today. Love the little birch stamp. What a fun image for tags. And that reminds me, I'd better get some made up myself. Wrapping time is nearly upon us.

Very sweet tag and gorgeous card! Don't think it looks dull at all! Love how you colored and winked it!Thank you also very much for your beautiful card that came in the mail yesterday! Love the way you used patterned paper! Might have to CASE it...Wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving! May your turkey be moist and the pies delicious!

Two beautiful creations, Darnell!!! I always love a black, white & red color scream and the embossing on those birch trees is wonderful!!! That big ole poinsettia (I'm always afraid I'm going to misspell that word...) is a show stopper! Love the winking and the way you sneakily added dimension! :)

I love your 'poofy poinsettia' Darnell! It's so bold and beautifully coloured. Such a fabulous Christmas image! And as for those tags, I do like them both, but those birch trees look 3D! honestly amazing! So thrilled you joined us at CASology this week!

Gorgeous tag and card Dippy. Love the "puffy" poinsettia, doesn't it make the flower come to life. So pleased to hear that Hammy has whipped the Hammettes into line and hope he's going to teach them all about crafting. You'll have to post photos of them growing up.

Fabulous creation Darnell! Thanks so much for joining us at The Sisterhood’s ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’ challenge and please come back again soon! Darleneone of the 'Sistahs'The Sisterhood of CraftersDAR’S CRAFTY CREATIONS

P.S. A friend and I have a new challenge blog beginning in 2016. Please check it out. Double D Challenges

Thank you for your kind words on my behalf.I love your work and great positive energy that is all over your blog.From this post I would pick as favorite the cute birch tree tag.And I would always pick crafting before cleaning ;)

Fabulous creations and each one so different! Thanks for your comments ... Sad to know that so many of you lovely people across the pond have the same problems with automated phone calls etc that we have here ... Thank goodness for creativity and a place to find sanity! Have a lovely day!

Oh deer, those tags are the cutest. I'm so glad you have your priorities straight. The windows and cleaning can wait, there are cards and tags to be made. You can always open the door and look outside if the windows are dirty! You poinsettia is just stunning. I love the watercoloring on it and your hair stylist did a fantastic job of poofing.

Windows and cleaning? Those can wait, especially when you have crafting ideas that need expressing! Your birch tree tag is sheer delight, especially with a sweet red deer, and your poinsetta is oh-my-gorgeous! "Stylist sensational"!Hugs~c

Ack overseas deadline, now I am panicking! I love your cute red deer Darnell. I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know you have a lot to be thankful for this year my friend. Thank you for linking up to the 25 Days of Christmas Tags! Good luck!

A huge grin across my face to see you playing along at Uniko :) LOVE your festive poinsettia card, beautifully coloured and the shimmer adds the perfect elegance. Thanks so much for joining in on the Uniko Challenge. Hugs Bev x

My Playhouse

Translate

About Me

I have been stamping and making cards since 2002. I've been married 47 years to Kevin, known herein as "Mister." Our son Daniel and his wife Rachel have twin sons Henry and Adam. Card-making and blogging are wonderful hobbies which have brought me noodles of friends! Oh, and I have an imaginary hamster named Hammy who keeps me in line. Thank you for visiting, joining, and commenting! It will be my pleasure to return the flavor!!